Theme Birthday Party

Updated on
July 21, 2008

M.
asks from
Houston, TX
on July 29, 2006

31
answers

My son can't decide whether to do a Pirates of the Caribbean for his 6th birthday bash or Madagascar. Please help me with cool ideas for his birthday. Thank you soo much for all your ideas. Birthday is schedule on 08-26. Thxs again :)

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S.D.

answers from
Fayetteville
on
August 01, 2006

Hello M., just wanted to let you know that I'm facing the same situation. I have two sons, my oldest will be 6 on October 25th and my youngest will be 3 on october 6th. This will be the first year that we will be having seperate parties. The reason being that my oldest will be in kindergarted and have new friends. Not that my youngest will be left out, he will be attending preschool and have friends his own age.
As far as the party themes go, My oldest wants the Pirates of the Carribean. Since he is the birthday boy, he will be wearing a pirate hat and all the guest will be wearing the do rags that the ship's mates wear. The best place to go for party supplies is a catalog called Oriental Trading. They're web sit is WWW.OrientalTrading.Com. I love this book because you can get almost everythng there. Thats where I plan to get the party favors. I hope I have been of some help. SD

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A.C.

answers from
Houston
on
July 31, 2006

I think you should have his birthday at Build a Bear at Baybrook Mall. I used to work there and did all of the parties. Let me tell you, they are SO fun!!

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C.M.

This site is incredible. I've gotten so many ideas from here. You won't be able to read them all!

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W.W.

answers from
Houston
on
June 14, 2008

That is a hard one. Both are great. The best way is to watch how they respond to each one.
You could do a Pirates/Madagascar crossover. ie Pirates go to Madagascar.

Good luck on your decission.
W.

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L.H.

answers from
Austin
on
July 31, 2006

you might also check out the Oriental trading company. they do lots of loot bags if you are trying to stay on budget. and Mac Donald's has the pirates happy meals that have pop out card bord pieces you can use for templates and make the dress up stuff out of construction paper or art foam like the ear ring, eye patch and cursed gold medallion and put on so yarn for the kiddies. and an easy cake idea (if you are making your own) would be a treasure chest. take your standers cake sheet and have the rectangle long ways in front of you. i would go down about 3 inches and cut straight across. now you can open the top of your treasure chest and ice the cake in fudge or chocolate and fill the gap with those white Oreo cookies and whoa-la! chest of gold.

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K.G.

answers from
Houston
on
July 31, 2006

Way too funny. My son is turning 7 and birthday is scheduled for 8-26 also and he can't decide what to do. He also thought about Pirates of the Carribean. If I come up with any good ideas I will let you know.

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J.S.

answers from
San Antonio
on
July 30, 2006

Hi there,
There is a company that sells everything, every theme etc. They are called birthday express. You can either look them up on line and request a cataloge. They will send you one and on their website they have items and advice etc. Enjoy. Happy birthday to your little one.

J.

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S.H.

answers from
Houston
on
July 31, 2006

Oh, there is so much you could do and so many websites to visit. Google-search birthday themes and you won't have enough time to read them all.

With the Pirate theme, you could put the kiddos in groups and give them little treasure maps to follow and have prizes waiting for them at their destinations. (Maybe candy coins and ring-pops). They could make eye patches, swords, pirate hats, flags - whatever! Decorations would be easy - hang some old torn sheets as sails and decorate old pillow cases or poster boards as pirate flags.

For the Matagascar theme, you could borrow plants and trees from everyone you know to turn your place into a jungle. (Or buy posters and hang them to look like a zoo.) ZooPals makes paper plates in wild animal themes that would work great (and save $$$). They can decorate their own masks or hunt for missing penguins.

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M.B.

answers from
San Antonio
on
July 31, 2006

My niece had a Pirates birthday last weekend. My sister bought a treasure chest pinata, filled it with candy and let all the kids take a swing at it. She also bought Pirate puzzles (party favors), popped out the pieces and hid them around the yard. Then she let the kids outside to hunt the pieces they needed. The first one done won a prize and they all kept the puzzles. Hope that helps some.

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W.P.

answers from
Houston
on
July 31, 2006

IF you do a pirates of the caribbean theme...check out Oriental Trading. They have a website you can look at and they have some great pirate themed goodies and ideas. Cheap too.

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C.B.

answers from
San Antonio
on
July 31, 2006

Hi M.,

I think a Pirates of the Caribbean party would be so cool right now, with the movie just out. What I do for my son, is get him a T-shirt with the theme to wear, or if you want to go to the extra expense, dress him up as a pirate, or get him the real costume from Disney (you can find it on ebay or at the Disney store). You can even have the attendees dress up too.

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O.W.

answers from
Little Rock
on
July 31, 2006

Try to find a copy of the July 2006 edition of Little Rock Family Magazine. It includes a list of 62 birthday party ideas which consist largely of local companies that host birthday parties and businesses that will come on location and host the party. It includes dress up parties like princesses, sports figures and the like as well as more common ideas like skate parties and laser tag.

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K.

answers from
Lake Charles
on
July 31, 2006

It depends on what type of party you want to do. also how many kids are invited. For a pirate's theme you could do a scavenger hunt or Make a treasure map with clues to find a treasure that would include loot bags for each of the kids. For the cake, you could do a small rectangular cake/like a chest/ with candy doubloons on it, and you could have smaller cupcakes around it with a fake coin on each one. my daughter loves the fact that she has her own cake on her birthday. I like the fact that with the cupcake liners there is actually less mess to clean up. Party city has a lot of great stuff to use if you can think ahead. Hobby lobby has a great selection of bridal on clearance now. i bought some things for my daughter to use in dress up and also because she is going to be a flower girl next year. They also had the bubble machine on sale.real cheap. If you spray some ocean scented spray and have bubble about it will seem like you are on the water. Have the kids dress in swimsuits //easy clean up/// and let the have a fight with water balloons and water guns.

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K.R.

answers from
New Orleans
on
July 30, 2006

we did a madagascar theme party in may. i found alot of jungle stuff at party city. big trees,etc for the walls,doors, windows, etc. we made a cut out from the madagascar invitation for the kids to stand behind and stick their heads thru and take pictures. we used a digital and a poloroid so the kids could put the pics in their gift bags. we named all of the food like monkey burgers,jungle juice,etc. i bought soem cheap greenery from walmart to put by the door to make it really jungle-like. the kids had lion masks. we gave animal cookies in their favor bags. they have alot of favor and decor ideas in oriental trading magazine or the website. hope this helps! i have pictures of the cut out if you need a visualization. have fun!--K.

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C.T.

answers from
Houston
on
July 21, 2008

If it's not too hot, The Houston Zoo is great, they have an animal theme already set in motion, they do all the decoration, goody bags, etc. It's colorful and fun, and the tables are all set for you, just bring ur themed cake and drinks. It's right by the petting zoo and carousel and kids area. It was fun, and your guests can make a family day out of it after.

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S.C.

answers from
Houston
on
July 31, 2006

Hi M.,

Dec 2004, I had a pirate party for my son turning 9. We played pin the treasure chest on the map (trying to hit the big red X), then ate a very cool cake from the Cake Lady in Friendswood. Then we opened presents.

The last present was the start of a treasure hunt game for all the kids! It was a box with "gold coins", pirate hook hands, and pirate bandana, and a rhyming clue. It's been a while but I think it was, "Here's a fun game for you and your friends to DO search and search til you find a balloon that is BLUE" Then once they found that one, it had lots of beaded necklaces & an eye patch, and the clue in from the box told them if you think this treasure hunt is really KEEN, go find the next clue with a balloon that is GREEN! Then I had ugly pirate teeth in that one! They all paused for a group picture (very funny!) Then that one had a paper that said if it's treasure you LACK, hunt for the balloons that are BLACK... when they found that one, it had a pinata in the shape of a treasure chest.
So all the treasure they found along with the pinata candy were what they got in their goody bags.
I had several kids say that it was the best party they went to because it involved them so much and our son loved play acting with his buddies.

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H.

answers from
New Orleans
on
July 31, 2006

I had a very successful pirate party for my twin boys . They turned
> three in April. I bought a lot of fabric and cut out a sash and a
> bandanna for each kid to wear on their heads and waist during the
> party. I had a couple of inflatable swords as well. The kids loved
> playing dress up and even some of the parents dressed up as well. We
> had a pirate cake. A treasure box with chips. We played Peter Pan in
> the house over and over for back ground noise.
>

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M.G.

answers from
San Antonio
on
July 30, 2006

I think the Pirates would be cool, you could even give out them chocolate coins I've seen at the dollar stores and have them dress up with an eye patch and have a piniata and say there is treasure inside or have a lil treasure hunt, make some of those easter eggs with confetti and have them find those, I love birthday parties and I can go on and on but I'll let you go on and plan now, happy b-day to your boo boo and hope he has fun!!!

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L.J.

answers from
San Antonio
on
July 31, 2006

You should check out "The Cake Shop" for really cool theme cakes. They are very good. You can check them out at thecakeshopsa.com. I get all my cakes there.
Good luck!!

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T.E.

answers from
New Orleans
on
July 31, 2006

Hi, M.! I have a 23 year old son and a 3 year old son, so I know how undecided boys can be. Personally, I think that he would enjoy the Pirates theme better - and you could really extend that idea by making a "ship" and the prizes could be stored in the treasure chest. Boys just seem to love to make noises at that age, and I think that little guys growling "argh!" is just too cute! Have it as a costume party, if possible.... if not, just dress him up! I hope this helps - please let me know how it turns out.

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M.

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C.W.

answers from
Denver
on
July 31, 2006

We are pirate fans at our home- For ideas I want to share this website: http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/You can read about what other parents have done just do a search and you'll get a tone of ideas. Hope this helps!
C.

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M.C.

answers from
New Orleans
on
July 31, 2006

hey, that party should be fun. anyway, you should take a trip to the store and see whats easier to find as far as decorations and trinkets. Once i saw a someone planning a party, she was setting up for human monopoly, i thought that was cute, after rolling the dice the kids moved thet many spaces. in my opinion i think that madagascar is sooooo cute, eventhogh i might be biased because i watched it again saturday. hope that it all works out.let me know how it went.

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C.S.

answers from
New Orleans
on
July 31, 2006

Hi M.! My kids have seen both of these movies and think they are both cool flicks! If you do the Pirates of the Caribbean you can use your Mardi Gras Beads as treasure to decorate with. If you don't have any I have plenty to spare!!!!! How old are your children and do you live in Slidell?

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L.A.

I use that site a lot and it is very helpful - Lots of good ideas!! Check it out even if you already have a theme in mind...there's loads of great ideas for games, etc.

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T.F.

answers from
Houston
on
July 31, 2006

I think both things would be great however, it would probably be easier to find Madagascar items suited for a birthday party. My kids just turned six and eight so I think both things are good, but depending on who is coming, that parent may not allow their kids to watch Pirates of the Carribean. So overall I would say Madagascar would be great.

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V.

answers from
Houston
on
August 01, 2006

my best friend did a pirate theme and it was great. she used plastic coke bottles and put shells and sand with a map/invitation inside which she burned the edges to make it look old. she also found cheap drawstring black bags and sewed cross bones on it for party favors. she organized treasure hunts and other similar games.

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J.K.

answers from
Corpus Christi
on
July 30, 2006

Check out the Disney.com website and they have some party ideas for the Pirates theme including a cake pattern for making a pirate face or ship cake. Have fun!

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M.L.

answers from
Fort Smith
on
March 04, 2007

My son's 6 th birthday is in april & he wants to do a pirate theme this year. We went online to oriental trading and bought his tableware. They had pirate maps and pens and chocolate coins so those will be his favors. We also bought a pen the eye patch on the pirate game and white cardboard swords so the kids could do a craft and decorate them. Wal-Mart does a Pirates of the Caribean cake. If you haven't checked oriental trading, they have all kinds of stuff for a pirate party.